After Rosa Bonheur. The Horse Fair, Paris, print

Presented at the Salon of 1853, this monumental painting of the Horse Fair in Paris (in the Metropolitan Museum collections, 240 x 500 cm [7-7/8 x 16-1/3 ft,.]) was the most acclaimed of Rosa Bonheur’s works. The artist worked a long time with preparatory drawings of the fair on Boulevard de l’Hôpital, dressed as a man in order to avoid excessive attention.
Exhibited in Paris, Gant and Bordeauc, the painting was then shown in England and the United States. Its success garnered numerous replicas. The most famous at the National Gallery in London served as a model for Thomas Landseer’s engraved print.